Japanese long tie wrap / sash with names - what is it ..... Kamikaze?

**Danmark** · 07-09-2022, 07:36 AM

Hi all, WAY out of my depth here but I caught up with a collector friend of mine who has a vast collection of 'oddities' .... taxidermy, skeletons, antiques crazy stuff!!

He shows me this he got from a deceased estate sale and asks do I know what it is ( I don't ) but said my friends on the forum may??

It seems to be some sort of thin sash or wrap ..... its 2 meters long, about 6cm wide at one end, tapering to a point. it is a cotton weave, quite thin with a few moth or silverfish nips and so definitely old and fragile. It has .... seventy nine ( yes, 79 ) names written on it!!! What the heck is it????

He ( and we ) would love to hear your thoughts on what he may have.
Thanks, Dan

Japanese long tie wrap / sash with names - what is it ..... Kamikaze?

**RussM** · 07-09-2022, 09:22 AM

I think it’s a ships commissioning pennant.

**RussM** · 07-09-2022, 09:30 AM

Japanese commissioning pennant (1914-1945, after 1956) | Royal Museums Greenwich

Commissioning pennant - Wikipedia

Great to have one with all those signatures on it!

**Danmark** · 07-09-2022, 11:53 AM

Thanks for that Russ .... its odd that its so thin? Where would it fly on a ship that you could even see it? I mean wikipedia says it was from the masthead but this doesn't look robust enough?

**Bruce Pennington** · 07-09-2022, 01:26 PM

Why English names?

**Danmark** · 07-09-2022, 01:53 PM

by Bruce Pennington

Why English names?

I assume a captured trophy?
A Big job to research but it might be worth looking into?

**RussM** · 07-09-2022, 11:16 PM

by Danmark

Thanks for that Russ .... its odd that its so thin? Where would it fly on a ship that you could even see it? I mean wikipedia says it was from the masthead but this doesn't look robust enough?

Here's an article on the US commissioning pennants and some history, which also mentions sizes toward the end.

Commissioning Pennant

There are also a lot of images of commissioning pennants on-line.

**Danmark** · 07-10-2022, 01:03 AM

by RussM

Here's an article on the US commissioning pennants and some history, which also mentions sizes toward the end.

Commissioning Pennant

There are also a lot of images of commissioning pennants on-line.

I'm leaning towards the names being US - there is a "Happy" Jackson named and I doubt the Brits, Kiwis or Aussies would use that nickname!
Maybe if I type enough of them into google, I will get some hits?

Cheers, Dan

**RussM** · 07-10-2022, 01:17 AM

Dan, I'd look up the Aussie service records first if I were you, if it was an Oz deceased estate. There are plenty of names to search and you might find a common link between them all. Maybe from the BCOF.

**Danmark** · 07-10-2022, 08:04 AM

Well Russ mate, you were RIGHT!!!
I have spend a good few hours entering names into the Australian National archives register of Naval personnel and I have found the key.

EIGHT of the easiest to read names on the pennant - A Goldstone, JR Wild, AF Yeomans, DA Hammond, GA McKee, CE Luxton R Mahoney, JP Kelleher all came up on the archive and looking at their ship time, they ALL had one thing in common - they all served on the HMAS NIZAM in Sept-October 1945.

Nizam was a duty destroyer in Tokyo Harbour during the surrender signing on USS Missouri and so this pennant may have been taken as a trophy off another of the surrendered fleet!!

I'm pretty chuffed!!!